Liquor is Quicker, Redux

A few years back I was shocked to learn that the Yankees had once had a ill-conceived and misbegotten mascot, Dandy, which appears to some kind of upsetting bird-type creature although it is honestly quite hard to be sure. Since everyone involved is eager to deny involvement and sweep poor Dandy under the rug, conflicting information abounds. I first read about Dandy in a book about Yankee history, when I researching a chapter in my own book, and in that post I quote a New York Times article, but it turns out accounts vary as to just when and for how long Dandy stuck around, and what he did or didn’t achieve in his short and blighted existence.

Now the great Flip Flop Fly Ball has discovered this fantastic/terrible photographic evidence of Dandy in his unnatural habitat, “on some guy’s Picasa photo album”:

[9] Okay, I take it back. George was quite a spazz during those days, so he's partly to blame for his being there and his ultimate demise. That would also explain why while they banished him to the upper deck, they also intended to extended his time at the end of his first contract. Dandy's creators had far more common sense then the Yanks did, which is not saying much in the 1980's.

But I don't feel sorry for the bugger, timing and all be damned. The San Diego Chicken and the Phillie Phanatic are creatures that, while conceived for the sake of the clubs they represent, do not invoke any representation of their respective clubs via their features. Unless San Diego is the fast food chicken capital of the US, I don't see how a cartoon chicken is otherwise reminiscent of San Diego, nor a seven-foot green moon muppet with an inverted cone for a mouth a stand-in for Philadelphia (maybe the beer-gut). But Dandy was ill-conceived from the get-go, from the royal blue venerated pinstripes (which was argued for by its creator) to the Munson mustache, which soon turned into tragically poor taste.

To imply that George and the Yanks were largely responsible for the creature's failure misses a crucial point; the Yankees and their fans practically worship Yankee iconography and destroy most attempts to denigrate or lampoon it; to embrace a brutishly cartoony mascot with the wrong colors embedded into it's body would be akin to moving the whole gang of Bleacher Creatures behind home plate or in the press box. The concept was ill conceived from the beginning; karma probably saved them from bigger embarrassment. Epic fail.

As Mr. Met has proven time and time again, you don't need a gimmick just because somebody else has one that, yunnow, works.

I remember seeing Dandy, at the stadium. I always thought he looked a little like Thurman Munson. I misremembered that his era coincided with the washboard-ragtime band that used to play in the stands. But I think the band's time was in the mid 70s right after the "old" new stadium opened. They sure beat the hell out of "groan" Cotton-Eyed Joe. Trombone, trumpet, banjo and washboard drummer.

Dandy, like Posada's HoF candidacy, is another one of those annual Bronx Banter topics that seems to herald the start of another season. I am not sure if all the old archives are still active, but there is lots of information, and links to a few other pictures, in the comments of at least two or three threads on the topic.

we have the Center of Puppetry Arts here in Midtown (Atlanta). i took my niece and nephews, a coupla weeks ago, when they were here visiting. there was a huge Jim Henson exhibit going on. Dandy, was not there...

i would like our Dandy to hurry up come back already. please, Andy. please!